Dominate the Country

"Mr. Brontë, as the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Britain to China, I believe that you must have some understanding of China and its history. China has a long civilization and history, but we are spinning in a strange circle. For two thousand years, the cycle continues endlessly!

Three hundred years has become a destiny for the Chinese dynasty.

How many powerful dynasties have gone to ruin at the juncture of their destiny, and a very important reason for this lies in the land.

In prosperous times, people are growing, but the land will not grow in the same way as the population increases.

When there are more people and less land, when more and more land is concentrated by the rich and noble class, when the rich have endless fields and the poor have no place to stand. Those who are dissatisfied with the power of the dynasty will be like weeds on the grassland, even if they are set on fire, they will not be completely burned.

Then the uprising broke out, and the continuous wars decimated China's population, giving the new dynasty enough land to accommodate everyone. Then a new cycle begins.

I believe there is only one way to solve this problem, land. China needs land, more land. Therefore, Mr. Bronte, as the Emperor of China, I propose to you this purchase resolution to purchase the New South Wales Territory from the Kingdom of Britain for thirty million Chinese dollars. "

William Al Brontë, Earl of Norwich, was an established aristocrat in British politics that had lasted for four hundred years. Sending such a person as the ambassador to China shows that the British attach great importance to China.

It's just that this young man who performed well in the House of Lords and was a staunch supporter of the Whig Party's former British Prime Minister Pitt, now looked at the Chinese emperor in front of him and his mouth opened in silence. What the hell happened? Shouldn't I be discussing the demarcation of New South Wales and Nanmingzhou with the respected Chinese Emperor in front of me? Why did the topic turn to the Chinese emperor's plan to finance the purchase of New South Wales?

And it is 30 million Chinese dollars, which is three million Spanish silver dollars, which is more than 600,000 pounds. God..., such a large amount of money, Bronte was almost stunned by this surprise.

He saw on the second page of "Zhongyuan Daily" two days ago that the Chinese government announced that it would organize immigrants to open up 'Nanmingzhou'. In Bronte's understanding, the word 'Nanmingzhou' did not come from Asia or Europe. Continent', but the "state" of the thirteen states in North America. In fact, he didn't know that Nanmingzhou was the geographical name of that land, and Nanmingzhou was the administrative unit of that land. He immediately made a request to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to meet the Chinese Emperor, because as early as seven years ago, Captain Cook had discovered the east coast of Australia, named it "New South Wales", and declared that this land belonged to the United Kingdom.

But now, seven years later, the British presence in New South Wales is still limited to Captain Cook's words. On the contrary, in New Zealand, southeast of New South Wales, British Captain Cook has visited New Zealand four times since 1769, and there are still tiny settlements.

Captain Cook's luck was also much better than that of the Dutch navigator Abel Jansson Tasman 140 years ago. They had relatively friendly exchanges with the local indigenous people, unlike the Dutch navigator Abel Jan. Pine Tasman was immediately attacked by the natives and had to leave immediately. In recent years, ships fishing for seals and whales have appeared in New Zealand. Missionaries have come one after another and heard that a miniature settlement has been established. But New South Wales, which is not far from New Zealand, is still a wilderness.

The Chinese just sailed to the south coast of 'Nanmingzhou' last year and set up boundary markers, declaring that the entire west coast was China's occupied territory. In just one year, the Chinese have already begun to immigrate there.

Bronte, with the most basic qualities of a diplomat, quickly proposed a meeting with China's supreme ruler in order to negotiate bilateral boundaries, but he never expected that he would get such a big piece of the pie...

It was a desolate land occupied by no one at all, and the Kingdom of Great Britain did not invest any money. The Chinese's initial price was six hundred thousand pounds. As long as they persisted, one million pounds was not impossible.

Although New South Wales is huge, it is so desolate. And now the British are in desperate need of funds!

You know, the Bank of England has issued national debt for the British government for eighty years. Although the British current annual income is as high as more than 10 million pounds, the huge interest rate makes it difficult for the entire government to maintain. The huge national debt, which is close to 150 million pounds, makes every British politician despair. Although more than 90% of the UK's national debt is fixed debt, that is, long-term national debt, only a very small part is liquid national debt, and the total amount may be less than 5 million pounds, and the interest rate on British national debt is also far lower than that in Europe The average level in mainland China is only 4%, but even so, the interest alone costs 5 to 6 million pounds per year, accounting for about half of the UK's total annual income.

Now the war on the North American continent has begun again. Last year, British military expenditures reached 1,700 pounds. Not all of these 17 million pounds were used for the war on the North American continent. Otherwise, Washington would have been hanged long ago. , but a lot of it was spent on the navy.

Because Franklin came to Paris, the whole of France was in excitement, and London had to consider the possibility of the French joining the war. So the Navy needs massive military spending to repair and build new ones.

During the original Seven Years' War, the British had 120 battleships, while the French had 45, and the French navy also lost 37 battleships of all levels and 56 masts in the seven-year war. warship. But what now? The French navy had returned to its former strength. After the British sought defeat alone, their naval power continued to decline.

Since the gunfire of Lexington reached the European continent, the French Navy's military budget has begun to rise steadily. In 1775 and 1776, its total amount reached approximately 50 million livres. The French Navy now has 48 main ships. Many of the main battleships are much larger than British warships of the same class. And this number will increase rapidly!

Moreover, in addition to this, the Kingdom of Great Britain also needs to be careful of the Spanish navy, which also has more than fifty battleships. Although the strength of the British Royal Navy is definitely stronger than any of its individual opponents, and the quality of the British Royal Navy officers and soldiers is even better than them, the British Royal Navy can now concentrate its fleet strength in Europe with only 62 main ships. Although it will only take a year or two to complete the fleet, Bronte believes that this number can definitely return to around 100 ships. But the French won’t stand still, right? And before that, John Bull was about to taste the feeling of being "outnumbered" that he had not experienced in a long time.

The most important thing is that Britain's foreign policy during this period was very bad. Under the auspices of the Tories, the British broke off diplomatic relations with Prussia, their once staunch trench ally, in 1762. The Whigs who took over later did not reverse this bad decision. With the arrival of the British king, Earl North, Since his favorite became the tenth British Prime Minister, the British have taken high-pressure measures against the shipping industries of neutral countries such as Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. The relationship with the Russians was also very unpleasant, and now Britain in Europe has become completely alone.

Bronte is very disgusted with the current British Prime Minister.

If the French declared war on Britain, their little followers, the Spanish, would certainly declare war on Britain, and then the Dutch would probably give loans to the French, Spanish, and even those rebels in North America.

The British are not only facing challenges in North America, but will also face tremendous pressure in Europe.

Therefore, London cleanly gave up the Konbaung Dynasty in Myanmar and gave up its alliance with the French in the Far East, which was a show of goodwill towards China. At this time, if the Chinese, who hold the initiative in trade, also attack Britain, it will put huge pressure on the country's finances and affect the people's confidence in the war.

But what did Bronte hear now? The great emperor of China wanted to spend such a huge sum of money to buy the desolate and uninhabited New South Wales. If the Chinese Emperor adjusts the funds upwards, Bronte believes that London will definitely be willing to use such a piece of land without investment in exchange for Chinese funds and the favor of the Chinese Emperor.

"Dear Your Majesty, I am very shocked by your proposal. This matter is not something I have the right to decide alone, although I am very happy that this deal can be reached. I will report the news back to the country immediately."

Bronte picked up his bowler hat and walked out of the palace happily. He no longer cared about the issue of coming to 'listen' to the Chinese Emperor's opinions on the land boundary between the two countries. This is very good news for the UK!

Regardless of whether London will ultimately approve the deal, it is just a bilateral exchange of letters, or London should send a special envoy. Then this matter can be delayed for a year or two. A year or two later, Brontë, who had absolute confidence in the Kingdom of Great Britain, believed that the rebellion on the North American continent had been put down.

"Your Majesty, news from the National Security Bureau." Chen Ming took a sip of water, squinted his eyes, and was thinking about a series of things in Australia, when Liu Wu came to him with a booklet.

"Liu Wenwei has set his sights on the Yuan family..."

However, the National Security Bureau also paid certain attention to Hongchang and found no violations of laws and disciplines. What is Liu Wenwei going to do?

Looking at the orders placed by Hongchang Textile Company at various shipyards shown in the report, Chen Ming knew what Hongchang wanted to do. Ever since Beihai Company set off a big firecracker under his instruction, which greatly stimulated the stock price to soar, this method was immediately copied. Moreover, many people will specially recruit "masters" to calculate the days and hours, auspicious days and auspicious times. Do the Chinese pay attention to this? As for the "press conference", they have not evolved to this point, but they will choose to announce it on a fixed podium outside the stock exchange.

Hongchang must be doing the same, and the first day of August is the day to go to court. If Liu Wenwei really got hold of Hongchang, it would definitely come out on this day. Chen Ming was suddenly looking forward to the first day of August.

But before that, he still needs to plan the armed force to immigrate to Australia.

The western part of Australia is far less suitable for survival than the eastern part. Although Australia is rich in mineral resources, the places suitable for human operation and life in this era are more suitable. The southeast and southwest corners of the south are currently occupied by China and the United Kingdom respectively.

There should be some indigenous Australians, but not too many. Chen Ming didn't know anything about this. He only knew that there were about 700,000 Australian Aboriginals in later generations, but he didn't know how many Aboriginals there were in this era. We also don’t know the distribution of these people, and we can’t even tell how aggressive these people are.

So the first batch of immigrants must have a guard team.

The Japanese are one of them, hiring two or three hundred security teams, and the immigrants themselves must organize armed forces.

But there is no need to take the local indigenous people too seriously, their threat is not that great. Chen Ming subconsciously despised the Australian aborigines in his heart. These Maori people don’t know whether they have developed bronze civilization now! It would be ridiculous to prepare a special force to protect them. Even the Japanese security team focuses more on port security and guards against European pirates.

Chen Ming felt that the names handed over by the cabinet were overkill. These people are more needed in the northwest and northeast, as for Australia..., "Let Zheng Ji go!"

"Zheng Ji?" Chen Cong was surprised. Shouldn't such a person sink into the long river of history and never come out again? He lived a stable life with the title conferred by the court, and the younger generation below came out to mix in society. Why did the emperor pull him out again?

After this guy "sweeped" the central and southern Fujian, he was relieved of his military power and placed in Nanjing for retirement. His father, Monk Wan Er, even went to Beijing with the emperor.

"Your Majesty, isn't this a bit risky?"

Nanmingzhou is really a vast piece of land. According to preliminary estimates, the area is not much smaller than that of the Central Plains. Chen Cong is naturally inclined to choose his own people, the sons of three surnames. For people like Zheng Ji who have been buried in the ground for two or three years, the heaven does not trust him.

Although most of the "bandit leaders" in the central and southern Fujian were caught, Ling Liang escaped and appeared in the remnant Qing army in North Vietnam when he reappeared. Chen Jie took the initiative to report Ling Liang's appearance to Nanjing, but Chen Ming didn't care. But in Chen Cong's eyes, Ling Liang, as the first attack target of the Third Division of the Fujian Army at that time, should have been captured in one fell swoop. Everyone was surrounded, but this person just ran away.

That dog and Li Shaomin had a grudge against Ling Liang, so Chen Cong had always suspected that it was Zheng Ji who gave Ling Liang a way out. However, in the following battles, there were no such inexplicable things.

"What's the risk? The world is in my hands. What's there to be afraid of with just Zheng Ji?" Chen Ming didn't care at all.

"Let him select a battalion from the Fourth Construction Corps in Sandu'ao. They must have families and families."

The Construction Corps was a structure added to the labor camp last year. There are more than a dozen battalions under a construction corps, and more than 30, 40 or 50 battalions. The commander of the construction corps is one level higher than the Fu Han Corps.

This is done to make better use of the labor camp, and the battalions of each corps are mixed. All the battalions from all over the country are dispersed, and then the team-level structures in the battalions are mixed. Sooner or later, there will be people from six or seven provincial governments in a team.

The Fourth Construction Corps was mainly composed of prisoners of war, hostile elements, and people of the Eight Banners from Jiangnan, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Fujian. There were more than 30,000 people, including the old, weak, women, children, and young and strong men, divided into 26 camps. There were 17,800 strong men. They had worked the hardest and suffered the most in recent years, and all the people's delusions had long been worn away.

Now Chen Ming asked Zheng Ji to select people from the Fourth Construction Corps, which meant that they were pardoned for their crimes. As long as they were out of the labor camp, no matter how much hardship and difficulty they had, these prisoners saw tomorrow and hope, so they had a certain degree of loyalty. Most of these people went to the battlefield, and their families were still in the hands of the court behind them. Let alone throwing them to Australia, even if they were thrown to South Africa, they would not need to worry about anything for three to five years.

The "work" in this labor camp did not say that they had to work in China. They had all been to Nanyang, so what was there in Australia, which was further south?

Chen Ming turned around and looked at a global map hanging on the wall that roughly matched the world map of later generations. The location of Australia was marked in red and white. New South Wales was written on the white, and Nanmingzhou was written on the red.

At the same time, many places to the north of the Greater Khingan Range were also dyed red, including the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. The Bering Strait became the Dongshan Strait, which was Chai Daji's name. The Aleutian Islands became the Northern Islands, because the Overseas Exploration Bureau was also called the Northern Bureau. Alaska was named Xiangzhou by Chen Ming, which was China's first step on the North American continent.